


A Very Torchwood Christmas

by boyslightup, timelessjanto



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, Gen, Mystery, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27650614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boyslightup/pseuds/boyslightup, https://archiveofourown.org/users/timelessjanto/pseuds/timelessjanto
Summary: Spirits are high within the Torchwood team as Christmas nears. Unbeknownst to them, the Rift has created a time distortion bringing the Hub's ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future together. What will happen when the present Torchwood team comes face to face with that of the future? In the end, will it be the merry Christmas they all had planned?
Relationships: Andy Davidson/Yvonne Hartman (Pete's World), Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 10
Kudos: 40





	1. Prologue

Captain John Hart sits back in his chair, his arms crossed behind his head and his boots on the table. He sighs, long and deep, and smiles to himself. He’s lost in thought until he notices you. He turns bright red and apologises, taking his feet off the table and edging his seat closer to you. There’s a spark of something mischievous behind his eyes, but knowing John, this doesn’t unsettle you.

“I didn’t expect you’d arrive so soon,” he says, “but now that you’re here, how are you? How did you find the trip?”

You go to respond, but he cuts you off.

“Actually, I don’t care. All that matters is that you’re here. Believe me, I put a lot of hard work into making sure this would happen.” 

When he offers you to sit down across from him, you do. You settle deep into the comfortable armchair. Relaxation overcomes you.

John smiles at you, showing his teeth. He reassures you, although you don’t need it.

“Ah, there we go.” In the distance, very faint, you hear jolly tunes. It grows louder and closer with each passing moment. He pulls out an old, weathered book and opens it. He coughs, putting on a pair of reading glasses. 

“A very Torchwood Christmas, written by-” He laughs, “Oh, would you look at that?” He turns the pages to face you, the author’s unmistakable name is in big bold letters. “It’s written by me!”

You don’t know how to feel when he says that, but you don’t have time to question it any further when he starts reading again, and the world around you starts to spin.

“‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the Hub, not a creature was stirring not even a-”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello and welcome to our fic! christmas is on its way so we thought we'd gift the world something fun and time wimey to bring our favourite teams together.


	2. Distortion and Infestation

“Rat!” Owen shouted. “There’s a rat!” He jumped backwards into a puddle, nearly dropping his box of Christmas decorations. He watched the thing crawl past his foot, down into the shadowy depths of the Hub. 

“That’s the third one today,” Ianto said, leaning against a tinsel covered column. He looked over to Owen and watched him hop up the stairs with an unbecoming grimace. He left behind a trail of soggy footprints. “Not including yourself of course.” 

From her desk, still in earshot, Tosh failed an attempt to conceal her laughter. She giggled away, looking up from above her computer then away when Owen shot her a glare. It still didn’t stop her from finding it funny.

“Yeah, well, remember whose job it is to get rid of the rats?” Owen asked, shuffling past with the box of decorations. He dropped it at Ianto’s feet, ignoring the sound of things breaking within it.

“You would’ve been gone a long time ago then,” Jack said, walking out of his office with his hands planted on his hips and his head held high.

“And there he is,” Owen said. “Decided to join the party, at last, have we?”

Jack wandered out to greet the rest of the team, looking up and around at the progress they had made on decorating the centre of the hub. “Sort of,” he said, “I actually just wanted to check in on the Rift anomalies from earlier. You know, to see if everything’s still okay.”

“Rift anomalies?” Gwen chimed in, turning her back to the Christmas tree in front of her. She still held a bright red bauble in her hand. “You didn’t tell us anything was wrong with the rift.”

Tosh stood up from her desk, ushering Jack over. “That’s the thing,” she said, “nothing seems to be happening around us but if you look here,” she waited until Jack was looking over her shoulder to continue, “there are some slight fluctuations.”

“I think we should still be careful,” Jack said, looking up at the rest of the team. “That goes for all of you. If you notice anything strange, let me know.” 

Before retreating back to his office, Jack called out to Ianto, ushering him closer. “Can you go make sure everything’s looking good down in the morgue?”

❆❆❆

At Jack’s request, Ianto wandered down to the morgue, ensuring that every crevice had been given that extra special ‘Christmas touch’ which he so proudly suggested in the first place. After all the terrible things they had all gone through in the past year, Ianto had felt as though the team deserved to have a bit of joy this Christmas.

Rows of tinsel shone against the dim artificial lighting of the Hub, covering every bannister in sight. He had made it a priority to cover up any damage to the Hub with Christmas decorations, most notably the snowman which was shoved into the wall to prevent any leaks. The rest of the team had done an excellent job.

As some sort of joke, to Ianto’s surprise, even the wall of body containers had been decorated. It didn’t feel appropriate to disturb people’s resting places like that, but it did look rather fetching. “At least it’ll keep the ghosts away,” he joked to himself. He looked down the rows of bodies and a smile tugged at his lips. “I’m looking at you, Suzie.”

Ianto took his time to observe the whole area, pride swelling in his chest the more he looked at it. It was gorgeous. He could already tell this was going to be an unforgettable Christmas.

On his way out he continued to look around, then out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure. It was only there a moment so he thought nothing of it, but then it appeared again. This time it was clearer and looked unnervingly human. He hadn’t heard anyone follow him down to the morgue, but just in case, he stepped closer and called out. The closer he got, the more vivid the figure became.

It was a woman. She faced away from him with larger-than-life blonde hair and a black skirt and jacket that sent a shockwave of nostalgia through his mind. He seemed to startle her for when he stopped in his tracks she turned around, the heels of her shoes clicking against the floor. The moment she looked at him he froze up, his heart skipping a beat before pounding like a drum.

“Y-” Ianto took an unsteady breath. He looked her up and down, breaking into a cold sweat. “Yvonne?” She was too vivid to be a ghost, so she had to be some sort of a hallucination because there was no way in hell that Yvonne Hartman was standing in front of him.

‘Yvonne’ opened her eyes wide, her jaw dropping with a gasp. She looked him up and down in return before blinking hard, over and over again like she too couldn’t believe he was there. Taking two steps back and shaking her head, she spoke.

“Who are you?” she gulped hard, “and what are you doing in my Hub?”

As he overcame the initial shock, Ianto’s sight adjusted. She was too solid to be a ghost or a hallucination, and her familiar voice and stench of her perfume were too vivid to not be real. At a closer glance, though, she looked older than she was in his memories and nightmares.

“Your Hub?” Ianto asked. His body became less rigid, his frozen panic turning to adrenaline coursing through him that told him to run far away, but he stayed. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

“Dead? I’m not-” Like in a science fiction film she started to flicker between transparency and opacity until her body seemed to warp for a fraction of a second before disappearing entirely. Every sign that she was ever there was gone.

The confusion only struck harder, and amidst the urge to be sick, Ianto ran back to the team as fast as he could.

❆❆❆

Jack and the team had already heard a commotion down in the morgue by the time Ianto returned to them. They had questioned it between themselves, Gwen even suggesting she go down to have a look, but he was back now.

“Thank God you’re back,” she said, grinning as she wandered over to him, “I was just thinking of asking what you thought of the tree.” When she stopped in front of him, she could see how pale he was and how wide his eyes were. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Ianto’s lack of reply, as always, spelt bad news. Gwen asked again, a touch of concern wavering in her voice, and Jack came over to check on him too.

Making sure he was comfortable with it, Jack wrapped his arm around Ianto’s shoulders and brought him into an embrace. He could feel Ianto shake so he held on tighter to steady him. “What is it?” he asked, “What happened?”

“It was... her.” Ianto let out, his voice muffled in Jack’s shoulder.

The remaining team looked amongst themselves and mumbled.

“Who?” Owen asked. Toshiko’s glare hardened and he apologised, “Sorry. I meant to say, whom was it you saw? That any better?”

Ianto took a breath and pulled away from Jack enough so his voice could be heard clearly by everyone else. He gulped hard, mustering the courage to say the two words he had spent so long trying to forget.

“Yvonne. It was Yvonne Hartman.”

❆❆❆

The team gathered in the conference room to discuss the matter. Ianto explained it to them in as much detail as he could. Everyone agreed there was no possible way for Yvonne Hartman, _the_ Yvonne Hartman, to be back from the dead let alone standing in their Hub and disappearing into thin air.

Tosh suggested that maybe it had something to do with the Rift anomalies, but it was only an isolated incident and not enough for anyone to be certain about it. The only thing they could do was wait and see if anything similar was going to happen, and God forbid for Yvonne to show up again. 

On everyone’s way back to their work, after Ianto insisted he would be okay, there was a blood-curdling scream. Everyone looked around in a panic as it continued until they realised where it was coming from. The cells.

❆❆❆

Gwen and Jack had their guns at the ready as they stormed through the door to the cells. In their heads, they were preparing themselves for whatever they were going to face. What they were met with was anticlimactic, to say the least.

There was no monster. There was no vicious beast. Instead, with his hands banging on the glass, was a six-foot-three man whom neither of them recognised. He shouted their names and banged on the glass harder, begging for them to let him out.

“Who are you?” Jack asked, “and how do you know our names?” He inched closer to the cell door, surprised the man hadn’t managed to break the glass with his horrendous screams and his continuous banging against it.

“Ha-ha very funny,” the man said, his voice fast with panic. “Just get me out of here, there’s a-” he turned to point at something but paused when there was nothing there. “I swear there was-”

“He asked who you were,” Gwen said, ignoring how he was pointing at thin air. “So go on, tell us who you are.”

The man looked back at her and grimaced. “This isn’t a joke, Gwen. Whatever game you-”

“Tell us,” Gwen hissed, raising her gun. This guy was clearly mad. “Now!”

“You- you really don’t know?” the man cocked his head and pointed at himself. “It’s me, Tyler. Tyler Steele.”


	3. Carols and Closed-circuit Television

“Whoever said this was the most wonderful time of the year was sorely mistaken,” Mr Colchester said. He raised his foot higher on the stepladder, pursing his lips as it wobbled. “Orr, you're supposed to be holding this bloody thing still.”

“I’m trying,” Orr replied, tightening their grip on its rusted railings. It broke every possible health and safety regulation. Everyone present felt relieved that Yvonne was not around after her it failed her Christmas tree erection risk assessment. “The thing is so old I’m surprised it hasn’t broken into pieces.”

From above, Colchester grumbled. “I’m not the one who suggested we spend our limited budget on a new Christmas tree.” He pulled his shiny scarf of tinsel off his shoulders and threw it across the tree. Being careful not to topple over, he spread it across the branches.

Sitting on the nearby staircase, Ng coughed, nearly choking on her mouthful of sweets. She shoved the now empty bag in her pocket and dusted off her sticky hands. “It’s as big as a house,” her voice was still muffled by the pieces of sweets caught between her teeth, “are you sure you ordered a normal-sized one?”

“It was the only one left on the website, and I couldn’t be buggered to check the height.” Colchester climbed back down the stepladder. He looked down at the box of dusty decorations beside him and picked out a cracked bauble.

Despite the tree being new, all the Hub’s decorations had been pulled out of storage. Some of them were damaged and the box was a little toasted, but they were in pretty good condition after surviving the explosion a few years ago. The original tree, unfortunately, didn’t have the same luck.

From the foot of the ladder, Orr smiled as they looked up at the tree. “It’s beautiful.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Colchester approached them again and put his foot on the bottom rung of the stepladder. “Speaking of which,” he whipped his head around, “Ng, do go get Ms Hartman, won’t you? I think it best she takes a look at what we’ve done to her beloved hub.”

“Where is she?” Ng hoisted herself up onto her feet. She wandered closer to Orr and Colchester, getting her own proper look at the tree. “I haven’t seen her since she left for a while earlier.”

Colchester hummed, turning away from her to continue climbing the stepladder. “Neither. Perhaps you should check the boardroom,” he leaned higher and hooked a bauble on a branch, “or the morgue if you feel like an adventure.”

❆❆❆

As she skipped down to the boardroom, Ng found herself humming Christmas carols under her breath. She had never celebrated Christmas before. She had, however, been bombarded with enough carols in the frozen aisle in Sainsbury’s that she felt like she knew them all by heart. Halfway there, though, she swore she heard some playing.

It was unlike Yvonne to play anything like that, so she eliminated that possibility. The closer she got to the boardroom, the louder it became. Her footsteps became tedious, not wanting to disturb the mysterious source of music.

Once in the doorway of the boardroom, Ng came to a fast halt on her heels. It was empty but the faulty lights were all on and flickering. There was no sign anyone had been there all day. Despite knowing Colchester was joking about checking the morgue, she considered it anyway.

In case Yvonne was hidden in a shadowy corner, she called out. “Anyone around?” she asked. “Hello?”

For a split moment, she heard chatter. She looked around, not seeing anyone, but the most interesting thing was the Christmas carols playing. The current track kept skipping, getting stuck and pausing before continuing for a few more seconds.

Through one of the brief moments of silence, she heard an unknown voice. “Why does it keep skipping?”

“Hello?” Ng asked again.

“I told Jack we needed a new one of these,” the voice said. It was feminine; lovely but not Yvonne's. “But of course he put it towards something important. I’m not sure what, though.”

Reaching for her gun, full of nerves, she called out again. Finally, the moment her hand touched her gun’s cold metal, the music stopped.

“Is someone there?” the voice asked. It was clear as day now, and after closing her eyes for a moment, space-time seemed to warp and now the voice had a body.

It belonged to a woman. She was tall, slim, and gorgeous and sat at the end of the table, a pencil in hand and a notebook in front of her. One thing was certain, and it was that Ng had never seen her in her life, making her an intruder.

“Who are you?” Ng asked, still touching her gun but not removing it from its holster.

“I could ask the same of you,” the woman said with a slight smirk. She seemed the polar opposite of Ng, looking her up and down but surprisingly calm, “but I’m Suzie.”

❆❆❆

“Don’t you think Ng has been away for quite a long time?” Orr asked Colchester. They sat together on the sofa, taking a break from decorating the Christmas tree. Lukewarm cups of tea were on the table in front of them.

“First Ms Hartman and now Ng,” Colchester said, “they must have fallen into another dimension.”

Orr chuckled and picked up their cups of tea. They were too gross to drink now, so they stood up and walked them over to the nearby sink. Yet, on their way, one of the nearby computers started to make a concerning bleep. It repeated itself, over and over again, so they walked over to it. They abandoned the cups of tea to have a look at what was going on.

“Is everything all right?” Colchester asked.

The screen in front of Orr, which had a crack in it, showed an important message that flickered. It was accompanied by the sound of the Rift manipulator groaning, and a lump formed in Orr’s throat. They took a closer look at the screen, clicking around different windows, all of them pointing towards a specific problem.

“I think you should take a look for yourself,” Orr said. They stepped away from the screen, making way for Colchester.

It only took a single glance for Colchester to stop dead in his tracks. He looked over to the Rift manipulator, it’s noises making a pit in his stomach. The Rift was usually unstable, and the computers always showed varying levels of concern, but the current levels were off the charts.

“Bloody hell,” Colchester said. “I think we’re in big trouble. With what, though, I’m not sure.”

❆❆❆

Yvonne cursed herself for how long she had been gone. Lunch breaks were rare for her, and on the single occasion she went on one, she came back late. She had suggested it at the last minute, needing something to clear her head after that morning's incident.

“I think you’re being a little dramatic,” Andy said while he walked her to the Hub entrance, holding her hand. “All this work stuff is making you far too stressed. Think about it. In a few short days, you can have some time off for the holidays. You, me, and some peace and quiet.”

“Andy, I really did see someone down there,” Yvonne clutched his hand tighter, “and you know I can never take a proper break from Torchwood.” There was more she wanted to say to him about the matter, but she didn’t want to worry him.

They walked the rest of the way to the Hub in silence. At least Yvonne assumed they were silent seeing as her thoughts had drowned out Andy even though he was next to her. She appreciated him going for a walk with her when he should have gone back to work already.

“Am I still seeing you tonight?” Andy asked, turning her to face him. He looked around, making sure they were in the blindspot of the Hub’s CCTV and away from anyone else's line of sight. When she agreed, he pursed his lips. “Will you be okay?”

“I’m a grown woman, Andrew,” Yvonne said, “I can look after myself.” After another sigh, she leaned up to kiss him, double-checking no one could see them.

Andy kissed her again and smiled. “All right,” he let go of her and adjusted his police jacket. “Just remember, it was all your imagination, okay?”

“Just my imagination?” Yvonne questioned under her breath, “All right.”

❆❆❆

The boardroom was so silent you could hear the hum of electricity running through it. Ng stared at Suzie, still shocked at how unbothered she looked. She swore she had heard that name before.

“In case you’re wondering,” Suzie said, rising from her seat, “this isn’t the first time I’ve seen an apparition. I’m assuming the others set me up? That’s the only explanation I can think of.”

When she said 'the others', the penny dropped in Ng's mind. She had done her research on Torchwood, especially the history of Torchwood Three. Suzie Costello was a former agent who took her life over a decade ago. In fact, her body laid to rest a few rooms away.

“How is this possible?” Ng asked, still backing away, “Since coming to Earth I’ve seen some weird stuff around here but never dead people. Is this finally me going insane?”

Suzie paused, her eyes widening. “Did you just say I’m dead?” she put her fingers on her wrist, “How can I be dead if I’m breathing and have a pulse? Wait, did you say you’re not from Earth?”

Ng put her own fingers on her wrist, feeling her own pulse. She was alive too. Pausing, she took a deep breath. Her hands shook as she held them up in front of herself. They were solid, but a sudden wave of nausea overcame her.

“Who are you?” Suzie asked.

“I’m-” Ng's voice cut off, no sound coming out of her mouth. She tried to speak again, but her body felt light and her mind spun around and around in circles. Her surroundings blurred and warped, and Suzie was merely a dark twisted shape. In one large rush of inertia, everything stopped.

“What th-” Ng said. Her vision cleared up and she looked around. There was no sign of Suzie anywhere. After she came back to her senses, she cast aside Colchester’s request that she find Yvonne, and she dashed to the archives.

❆❆❆

The moment Yvonne got back to her office, she sank into her chair. She let her posture loosen, taking a deep exhale as she sank further into it. On most occasions, she wouldn’t let herself relax so much, but then again she usually didn’t feel so scattered. She thought it best to take a moment to relax before going back out to her colleagues.

Had she really seen a ghost in the morgue? Or was she hallucinating? And why did she all of a sudden feel ill and watched her whole world warp before her? She had done enough personal evaluations to know she wasn’t psychotic, so she considered Andy’s point of view. Perhaps he was right and she was simply exhausted.

Yvonne moved her line of vision from the floor to the ceiling, observing it in all it’s familiarity as she cooled off. Her office hadn’t been decorated, and she didn’t plan on having it decorated, but she was still proud of how beautiful the rest of her Hub was looking.

Looking up through her grimy, stained window, she saw a shape fly through the Hub. She couldn’t tell what it was, so she pulled herself to her feet to get a closer look.

Dashing to her door and wobbling on her high heels, she swung it open and looked out upon the Hub. For a brief moment, she caught a glimpse of it. It was a prehistoric creature, elegant but with a terrifying squawk.

Visuals of her past perusings of Torchwood's archives fluttered around her mind. There was only one thing it could be. Myfanwy, the old team’s pet pterodactyl.

"That isn't possible," she said, eyes wide and mouth agape, "I'm right, aren't I? There's something going on here. Why else would I see someone in the morgue and now a pterodactyl?"

Yvonne composed herself and strutted down the hallway. She looked down upon the team, for a moment distracted by how well they had decorated the tree, and walked down the stairs to them. Once on the ground, she looked up to see no pterodactyl in sight. She called out to Mr Colchester.

Mr Colchester turned around. “Bugger.”

❆❆❆

“What do you mean there are abnormal Rift readings?” Yvonne asked, leaning on Orr’s desk. The Rift manipulator had silenced, and the readings on the computer had mellowed back to their usual level. “I don’t see anything any different from how they normally are.”

“It seems to have calmed down for now,” Orr said. They clicked through computer windows and pulled up the charts from earlier. “If you have a look, you can see there were significant spikes that only lasted for a few min- hold on.” Rushing, they clicked through more pages. “There was a brief one a few seconds ago," they gasped, "but I think you'd better take a look at last night's."

Yvonne hummed and crossed her arms. The spike from a few seconds ago lined up with the few moments she saw Myfanwy. “Orr,” she held her breath, “what time today did the other readings spike?”

"Before most of us arrived there was one, then another a while ago when we sent Ng after you to see if you had come back already."

"Where is she now?" Yvonne asked.

“We sent her away a while ago, and she hasn’t returned,” Mr Colchester replied, “but I do believe she is still in the Hub-’

Yvonne’s stomach dropped. Her gut feeling that something was wrong returned, and she realised she wasn’t mad at all. “I have one more question,” she put her head in her hand, “it’s the early afternoon. Has anyone seen Tyler yet?”

❆❆❆

Colchester took it upon himself to visit the cells to look for Tyler. When he reached them, he was nowhere to be seen, but all his limited belongings were still there. He walked to the bathroom, but no, he wasn’t there either. His absence didn't bother him, but that wasn’t the point. He was nowhere to be seen.

After bringing the news to Yvonne and Orr, he logged into the CCTV footage in and around the hub. He felt Yvonne stiffen beside him when he clicked on the outside cameras, and then she sighed when he clicked away.

“Hold on,” Orr cut in. They overtook control of the computer and logged into the cameras in the cells. They rewound through the last twenty-four hours, and Tyler had been there last night. Except within one frame, he vanished into thin air. Everything had been left where it was, but there was no Tyler, only a weevil that hadn't been there previously. It too disappeared.

“He just-" Colchester said.

“He disappeared,” Yvonne said, biting the nail on her thumb. “Orr, what time was that at? And what time was last night’s Rift spike?”

The trio was encased in silence as Orr checked. Surely enough, his disappearance corresponded with the major Rift spike. Almost to the second.

"What do we do?" Orr asked, "Do we go tell Jack about it?"

Yvonne realised she couldn’t stay silent about what happened that morning anymore. Deep down, she began to understand what happened. Before she could, though, Ng came running in and panting. Everyone turned to face her.

“I think I’ve seen a ghost.”


End file.
